Oglethorpe Mall

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Oglethorpe Mall

Location	Savannah, Georgia, USA
Opening date	April 1969
Developer	Scott Hudgens
Owner	General Growth Properties
No. of stores and services	150
No. of anchor tenants	4
Total retail floor area	948,000 square feet (88,000 m²) (GLA)
Parking	5,348 spaces (including parking deck)
No. of floors	1
Website	oglethorpemall.com

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Oglethorpe Mall is a super-regional shopping mall on the Southside of Savannah, Georgia, at 1 million square feet (90,000 m²). It is named after General James Oglethorpe, the founder of Savannah. This mall features several restaurants like Pepino's Mexican Restaurant, Romano's Macaroni Grill, and Piccadilly Cafeterias. There is a 10-unit food court that features the following vendors - American Deli, Cajun Cafe, Chick-Fil-A, Cinnabon, Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, Great Wraps, Max Orient, Sarku Japan, Sbarro, and Subway. Currently there are approximately 150 stores and kiosks. The anchors are Barnes & Noble, Belk, JC Penney, Macy's (formerly Rich's) and Sears.

Oglethorpe Mall, the oldest mall in Savannah, was considered obsolete and mostly written-off by most consumers when Savannah Mall opened in 1990. Now almost two decades after Savannah Mall (a mall that has gone drastically downhill in the years since its opening [1]) opened, Oglethorpe Mall, thirty-nine years after its opening, has become the premiere shopping mall experience in Savannah, with a varied array of stores and eateries resulting in a pleasant and vibrant shopping experience.It is currently owned by General Growth Properties.

Center Court of Oglethorpe Mall, present day

[edit] History

Center Court of Oglethorpe Mall, 1977.

The mall opened in April of 1969 on Abercorn Expressway. At opening date the anchors were Belk-Beery and Sears. With the 1970s came a new era that brought in national chain stores. Stores like County Seat, GAP, The Limited, Waldenbooks, Casual Corner, Spencer Gifts, Merry Go Round, and others. Local department store Adler's was also located at the mall. Piggly Wiggly was also initially in the mall. The basic design of the mall was very simple. It consisted of suspended ceilings, fluorescent lighting, and terrazzo floors. The exterior was and still largely is stucco over cinder-block. There also was a movie theatre that closed in the mid-1980s. The movie theatre is now the 4th precinct of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department.

Renovations came in 1982 when JC Penney was added, in 1989 when the mall was gutted and structurally redesigned and in 1991 when Rich's was added following the closing and demolition of Jordan Marsh. Since the late 1990s many modernizations have occurred, like replacing a section of the mall called The Promenade (a long corridor with small shops along either side and a restaurant at the end, all decorated in what would now be defined as '80s kitsch - Day-Glo colors, neon lights, and glass tile blocks, among many other popular construction designs from the '80s.) with Barnes and Noble. Two years later a spacious new food court opened, replacing the older sporadically placed restaurants throughout the mall. Before the new food court opened, Oglethorpe Mall had never had a real food court. Work continues to bring in more upscale stores and more affluent shoppers.